Jobs open the doors to success for former inmates

For many jail inmates, awaiting trial is just the beginning of their problems. Down the road are problems with reentry once they are released from jail. Fortunately, a program exists to help.

For many jail inmates, awaiting trial is just the beginning of their problems. Down the road are problems with reentry once they are released from jail. Fortunately, a program exists to help.

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

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For many jail inmates, awaiting trial is just the beginning of their problems. Down the road are problems with reentry once they are released from jail. Fortunately, a program exists to help.

For many jail inmates, awaiting trial is just the beginning of their problems. Down the road are problems with reentry once they are released from jail. Fortunately, a program exists to help.

Photo: John Davenport /San Antonio Express-News

Jobs open the doors to success for former inmates

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Want to aid in the fight against crime?

Providing the formerly incarcerated a job is probably the best bet.

Although landing in jail is never good, for many Bexar County inmates, the problems really start multiplying upon release.

Destitute, jobless, often with no place to call home and forced to couch surf, it is only a matter of time before they end up incarcerated for some low-level criminal infraction.

Sometimes even their clothing poses a problem. The cutoff shorts and sandals that were comfortable in summer are inappropriate on a blustery winter day.

San Antonio has always provided a variety of safety nets for those in dire straits. The bigger issue is that of access.

Many of the agencies providing assistance to the down and out are geographically scattered, and patience is required when dealing with their inherent bureaucracy.

For many former inmates with mental health issues, the obstacles are overwhelming, and they often opt to do without rather than attempt to navigate the system.

Accessing available resources has been a bit easier for those being released from custody. Since July, Bexar County has offered recently released criminal defendants triage that goes beyond their medical needs through the Re-entry Program, which operated under the county’s Judicial Services Department.

Most clients come directly to the program at 222 South Comal St. from the Bexar County Jail, which is down the street. But the services are not limited to former county prisoners. The clientele includes those recently released from state facilities and federal prisoners.

It has a steady clientele of about 500 and is adding about 100 new clients each month.

Among those benefiting from the services is a 29-year-old former prostitute with several children ranging from toddler age to 10. She spent the last 10 years working in dance clubs, stripping and selling her body to provide for her family.

Today she is in a shelter, has access to child care and is looking at two prospective jobs. She proudly reports her school-age children are thriving in class.

“It has changed my life,” she said in a recent telephone interview. “I went from prostitution in order to pay my bills to a shelter. I don’t have to sell my body, I am getting back on my own two feet.”

She realizes many people will look down on her because of her previous occupation.

“We did what we did for our kids. Many times we had to choose between buying food or paying the electricity,” she said.

A job is a key to the future success of former inmates, acknowledges Debra Jordan, Re-Entry Program manager.

Many of the formerly incarcerated have limited education; they may have a GED but no computer skills or formal job training.

The center, in conjunction with services available through Bibliotech, the county’s all-digital library, helps clients set up email accounts and draft résumés that highlight the skills they may have acquired while incarcerated.

When interviewed, most former inmates will say they have no skills and have been in detention most of their adult lives, Jordan said. However, many have worked in laundries at detention facilities. They have helped in the kitchen or learned to operate forklifts. Those are skills that have value in the job market, but they don’t realize it.

Finding employers for the formerly incarcerated is not as big a problem as some might imagine.

“We have many employers, I am not at liberty to share their names, but we have over 400 employers who will hire the formerly incarcerated, and we are adding to that list every day,” Jordan said.

The list is not public because business managers are concerned about negative feedback, she said.

“Employment is the No. 1 thing we can do. It’s the one proactive thing an individual can do that will keep them from going back to jail. If they are employed, they have an 80 percent chance of success, so our employers are very important to us,” she said.

The young mom trying to rebuild her life after a decade of prostitution agrees.

“We did not have many choices; we were stuck in poverty. If I don’t get a job, I will go back (to her former occupation ),” she said.